2 4 March 1973, on Amman Radio, Abu Daoud asted of his part in the planning of 'the glorious munich operation' in the course of which eleven Israeli letes were murdered. From...

While Mr Ivor Richard continued to shuffle round southern Africa, the resumption of the Geneva conference on Rhodesia was postponed. President Machel of Mozambique and President...

Neglected springboard John Gri gg Suggesting good ideas for Jubilee year is becoming a national sport, and in the Sunday Telegraph Brian Roberts has proposed (9 January) a...

The bread delivery men's strike raises a number of agreeably confused issues and most people do not seem sure what, if any, line to take. One friend, not usually an enthusiast...

Secret, smouldering hatred Auberon Waugh There is an old woman Who lives in a neighbouring village to ours in France called Mathilde. She is a widow whose only son d ied; she...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington George McGovern, an invisible man since Nixon crushed him in 1972, has emerged on the TV screens and called Carter's cabinet selections worthy...

Alex Finer M any bartenders in California now add two olives on two separate cocktail sticks when 4 customer orders his second martini. They ar e not being generous, just...

Patrick Marnham On 15 January the 'World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture' opens in Lagos. Even now, after two postponements, the imposing Festival 'village' and...

Colin Bell Edinburgh Nationalists make much of the parallels they see between Scotland and Norway; journalists increasingly suspect that a more apposite comparison might be...

Ian Bradley Parents with a boy starting at public school next year are likely, if present trends continue, to be paying fees of more than £3000 a year before he leaves. Already...

Patrick Cosg rave Nowadays, and more often than not fairly, we blame government for most of the ills that have befallen the nation. That judgment is not unfair, not least...

Brian Inglis Should you be in the region of Belsize Park this January, you will see certain men striding along purposefully, with a glint in their eyes and a spring in their...

Christopher Booker it has been a week Of mysteries. By far the Most important mystery in the world at the ni° ment is what is going on in China. Is the Country about to become a...

Jeffrey Bernard It was just two weeks after the discovery . of the Byron letters in the Pall Mall branch of Barclays Bank that I made my own startling find. There in a carrier...

The gilt-edged boom Nicholas Davenport The speed and efficiency with which the City carries out its national duties are quite l antastic. Within four working days it subscribed...

Sir: I am now able to reveal a hitherto well-kept unofficial secret about Auberon Waugh. There was an amendment to the Public Lending Right Bill which Roger Moate and I did not...

Sir: Now that the dust has settled over the prosecution of Lord Wigg and his acquittal, the time has come to consider some of the wider implications of the case. A great deal...

Finally, having failed with their action, do they really deserve the judicial accolade which they received ? Lionel Bloch 9 Wimpole Street, London W1

Sir: I was flattered to be described, in the notes on contributors to your 1 January issue, as president of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In fact however the presidency...

Sir: I notice with dismay that you have begun to give space to advertisements which serve to promote homosexual purposes. I think I understand most of the arguments for free...

Sir: I'm still worried about the case of Mr W. E. Bell who wrote (11 December) fro" a public school staffroom to deplore .the Spectator's publication in its back pages of...

I. In 1901, George Moore returned to Dublin, where he would reside for the next decade. In 1898, rather than deciding to conceive a passion for the redemption of Ireland,' he...

independence, giving Scotland a few years to run herself in as a functioning State, and the Scots a few years to get used to the idea of self-government. Nevertheless I have...

Sir : Really, Alan Watkins (8 January) should stick to politics rather than writing patronisingly of those who know more about language than he seems to! 'Hopefully' (in its...

Sir: Those who like, admire and respect Ronald Butt will be sad to see him described —and at Christmas time, too!—by Christopher Booker as a bore. So will those who like, admire...

Sir : John Grigg's article (1 January) defends 'adversary politics' on the ground that it is healthy to have hard-hitting controversy. Yes, but objectors to adversary politics...

The death of Narcissus Paul Fussell Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo: A Biography Miriam J. Benkovitz (Hamish Hamilton £6.50) Like other rare, desirable things (money and...

Peter Conrad Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby Geoffrey Wolff (Hamish Hamilton £4.95)

Having been blooded at Verdun, he returned to scandalise the patricians of Boston, and then fled to systematically derange his senses in the literary society of Paris; in 1929...

and Records Wanted THE JERVIS BAY by George Pollock (Published by William Kimber). Write : Fegen, Ashleigh Cottage, Weston Green, Themes Dillon. Surrey. WALPOLE'S KATHERINE...

Peter Medawar The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins (Oxford University Press £2.95) When confronted by what is ostensibly altruistic or anyhow non-selfish behaviour in animals,...

Dream Children Gail Godwin (Gollancz £4.50) Before the Crying Ends John L Hughes (Bodley Head £3.50) The Thomas Berryman Number James Patterson (Secker and Warburg £3.90) Nick...

Benny Green The Final Curtain John Wolfson (Chappell and Andre Deutsch £7.95) Ever since Gilbert and Sullivan died, Savoyard scholarship has embodied a curious contradiction—the...

A. J. Ayer The Booker Quiz Christopher Booker (BBC Publications, with Routledge and Kegan Paul, £1.50) A popular feature of the BBC Sunday night television programme, Read All...

Olivia Manning The Young Man Said: The Memoirs of Dennis Wheatley, 1897-1914 (Hutchinson £4.95) Dennis Wheatley, author of a vast number of novels and stories, is now writing...

Harriet Waugh Clubland: The Wrong Side of the Right People Anthony O'Connor (Martin Brian and O'Keefe 0.00) London Clubs are fast becoming part of the vast wasteland inhabited...

Young Woody or tales of valium and conquest Penelope Gilliatt Woody Allen is imperially funny and racked by nerves. At his apartment in New York, a two-storey penthouse with...

Back to front Clancy Sigal The Front (Columbia) The Pink Panther Strikes Again (Odeon, Leicester Square) The Enforcer (Warner 2) The Ritz (ABC, Shaftesbury Avenue) In 1953 I...

Sparklers John McEwen When the British Museum decides to mount a show gathered from its own collections and departments the result is rarely less than spectacular, and leaves...

Four lives Ted Whitehead Small Change (Riverside Studios, Hammersmith) Uhlanga (Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court) I Gotta Shoe (Criterion) Weekends at the Riverside Studios...

Hans Keller 1 Was on a little Canary Island when Britten died, writing a book on Criticism. I was just APproaching the section on Posthumous Tortu r e _a much-neglected branch...

Art and communication Eugene Victor Thaw Three events took place recently in New York featuring Thomas Having, the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—a man accustomed...

Smug Peter Richard lngrams I see that one of the subjects on which competitors for the Spectator schools essay prize are being invited to write is 'Is television harmful ?' I...